The Study of Optical and Electrical Properties of Nanostructured Silicon Carbide Thin Films Grown by Pulsed-Laser Deposition

Muhanad A. Ahmed; Mohammed F. Mohammed Sabri; Wathiq R. Abed

doi:10.14500/aro.10852

Muhanad A. Ahmed Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0523-8301
Mohammed F. Mohammed Sabri Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9375-7202
Wathiq R. Abed Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0139-3833

Keywords: Nanostructure, Pulsed laser deposition, Silicon carbide, Thin film

Abstract

In this paper, nanostructured silicon carbide (SiC) thin films are deposited onto glass substrate using pulsed laser deposition technique. Electrical and optical characterizations such as conductivity, resistivity, transmission, Seeback effect, absorption, absorption coefficient, energy band gap, and extinction coefficient as a function of photon energy, and the effect of thin films thickness on transmission are carried out to characterize the prepared samples. Results showed that the prepared SiC thin film is an n-type semiconductor with an indirect bandgap of ~3 eV, 448 nm cutoff wavelength, 3.4395 × 104 cm⁻¹ absorption coefficient and 0.154 extinction coefficient. The surface morphology of the SiC thin films is studied using scanning electron microscope at a substrate temperature of 400 °C and it is found that the grain size of the prepared SiC thin film is about 30 nm. As such, the nano thin films optical and structural characteristics enable the films to be used as gases sensors in many optoelectronic devices such as the environment and ultraviolet photodiode.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Muhanad A. Ahmed, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq

Muhanad A. Ahmed is a Professor at the Department of Electrical Techniques, Institute of Technology, Middle Technical University. He got the B.Sc. and the M.Sc. degrees in Physics. His research interests are in Nano Materials, Laser and Solar Cells.

Mohammed F. Mohammed Sabri, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq

Mohammed F. Mohammed Sabri is an Assistant Prof. at the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University. He got the B.Sc. degree in Materials Science, the M.Sc. degree in Applied Physics and the Ph.D. degree in Nano Materials. His research interests are in Nano Materials, Electron Microscopy, Glass and Amorphous Materials and Nano-Particle’s preparation. Dr. Mohammed is a member of Nano LAB at Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sheffield University, United Kingdom.

Wathiq R. Abed, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Health, Koya University, Koya KOY45, Kurdistan Region - F.R. Iraq

Wathiq R. Abed is a Lecturer at the Department of Electrical Techniques, Institute of Technology, Middle Technical University. He got the B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering, the M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. His research interests are in Electrical Power System and Aircraft Electrical Power System. Dr. Wathiq is a member of Higher Education Academy (HEA).

References

Abderrazak, H. and Hmida E.S.B., 2011. Silicon carbide: Synthesis and properties. In: Gerhardt, R., (Ed.), Properties and Applications of Silicon Carbide. IntechOpen, London, United Kingdom. pp.361-388.

Ahmed, M.A., Sabri, M.M. and Mohammad, H.Q., 2020. Study of structural and optical properties of Cu2O thin film prepared by rapid thermal annealing using Nd-YAG laser. NeuroQuantology, 18, pp.15-22.

Aristov, V.Y., 2001. β-SiC (100) surface: Atomic structures and electronic properties. Physics Uspekhi, 44, pp.761.

Axelevitch, A., Gorenstein, B. and Golan, G., 2012. Investigation of optical transmission in thin metal films. Physics Procedia, 32, pp.1-13.

Babaei, F.H., Faramarz, Masoumi, S. and Noori, A., 2017. Seebeck voltage measurement in undoped metal oxide semiconductors. Measurement Science and Technology, 28, p.115002.

Chen, B., Yang, D., Charpentier, P.A. and Zeman, M., 2009. Al3+-doped vanadium dioxide thin films deposited by PLD. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 93, pp.1550-1554.

Dao, D.V., Phan, H.P., Qamar, A. and Dinh, T., 2016. Piezoresistive effect of p-type single crystalline 3C-SiC on (111) plane. Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Advances, 6, pp.21302-21307.

Gupta, M., Sauer, V. and Tsui, Y.Y., 2013. Pulsed laser deposition of uniform semiconductor nanodot arrays. Applied Physics A, 110, pp.817-821.

Ho, C.N.M., Breuninger, H., Pettersson, S., Excobar, G., Serpa, L.A. and Coccia, A., 2012. Practical design and implementation procedure of an interleaved boost convertor using SiC diodes for PV applications. IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, 27, pp.2835-2845.

Iwanaga, S., Toberer, E.S., LaLonde, A. and Snyder, G.J., 2011. A high temperature apparatus for measurement of the Seebeck coefficient. Review of Scientific Instruments, 82, pp.063905-063906.

Jha, H.S. and Agarwal, P., 2015. Highly crystalline silicon carbide thin films grown at low substrate temperature by HWCVD technique. Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, 26, pp.1381-1388.

Kimoto, T. and Cooper, J.A., 2014. Fundamentals of Silicon Carbide Technology: Growth, Characterization, Devices and Applications. John Wiley and Sons, New York, United States. pp.1-544.

Kimoto, T., 2016. Bulk and epitaxial growth of silicon carbide. Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials, 62, pp.329-351.

Li, M., Zhou, X., Yang, H., Du, S. and Huang, Q., 2018. The critical issues of SiC materials for future nuclear systems. Scripta Materialia, 143, pp.149-153.

Liu, G., Tuttlr, B.R. and Dhar, S., 2015. Silicon carbide: A unique platform for metal-oxide-semiconductor physics. Applied Physics Reviews, 2, p.021307.

Majidi, S., Nezafat, N.B., Rai, D.P., Achour, A., Ghaziasadi, H., Sheykhian, A. and Solaymani, S., 2018. Optical and electronic properties of pure and fully hydrogenated SiC and GeC nanosheets: First-principles study. Optical and Quantum Electronics, 50, p.292.

Molki, A., 2010. Simple demonstration of the Seebeck effect. Science Education Review, 9, pp.103-107.

Ogugua, S.N., Ntwaeaborwa, O.M. and Swart, H.C., 2020. Latest development on pulsed laser deposited thin films for advanced luminescence applications. Coatings, 10, pp.1078-1100.

Ohba, Y., Shimozaki, T. and Era, H., 2008. Thermoelectric properties of silicon carbide sintered with addition of boron carbide, carbon, and alumina. Materials Transactions, 49, pp.1235-1241.

Phan, H.P., Cheng, H.H., Dinh, T., Wood, B., Nguyen, T.K., Mu, F., Kamble, H., Vadivelu, R., Walker, G., Hold, L., Iacopi, A., Haylock, B., Dao, D.V., Lobino, M., Suga, T. and Nguyen, N-T., 2017.

Single-crystalline 3C-SiC anodically bonded onto glass: An excellent platform for high-temperature electronics and bioapplications. American Chemical Society (ACS) Applied Materials and Interfaces, 9, pp.27365-27371.

Phan, H.P., Dao, D.V., Wang, L., Dinh, T., Nguyen, N.T., Qamar, A., Tanner, P., Dimitrijev, S. and Zhu, Y., 2015. Strain effect on electrical conductance of P-type nanocrystalline silicon carbide thin film. Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 3, pp.1172-1176.

Rabkowski, J., Peftitsis, D. and Nee, H.P., 2012. Silicon carbide power transistors: Anew era in power electronics is initiated. IEEE Industrial Electronics Magazine, 6, pp.17-26.

Rasheed, M.N., Maryam, A., Fatima, K., Iqbal, F., Afzal, M., Syvajarvi, M., Murtaza, H., Zhu, B. and Asghar, M., 2020. Enhanced electrical properties on nonstructural cubic silicon carbide with graphene contact for photovoltaic applications. Digest Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures, 15, pp.963-972.

Saddowa, S.E., Frewina, C.L., Reyesa, M., Registera, J., Nezafatia, M. and Thomasa, S., 2014. 3C-SiC on Si: A biocompatible material for advanced bioelectronic devices. ECS Transactions, 61, pp.101-111.

Wang, D., Yang, Y., Guo, T., Xiong, X., Xie, Y., Li, K., Li, B. and Ghali, M., 2021. Effect of pulse bias voltages on performance of CdTe thin film solar cells prepared by pulsed laser deposition. Solar Energy, 213, pp.118-125.

Wang, X.H., Yamamoto, A., Eguchi, K., Obara, H. and Yoshida, T., 2003. Thermoelectric properties of SiC thick films deposited by thermal plasma physical vapor deposition. Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 4, pp.167-172.

Xu, Z., Tao, K., Jiang, S., Jia, R., Li, W., Zhou, Y., Jin, Z. and Liu, X., 2020. Application of polycrystalline silicon carbide thin films as the passivating contacts for silicon solar cells. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 206, p.110329.

Yang, N. and Jiang, X., 2019. Cubic silicon carbide: Growth, properties, and electrochemical applications. In: Novel Carbon Materials and Composites. Wiely, Hoboken, New Jersey, pp.1-33.

Zakaria, M.A., Menazea, A.A., Mostafa, A.M. and Al-Ashkar, E.A., 2020. Ultrathin silver nanoparticles film prepared via pulsed laser deposition: Synthesis, characterization, and its catalytic activity on reduction of 4-nitrophenol. Surfaces and Interfaces, 19, p.100438.